Hurray for a fat heroine who wins the lottery! This was such a fun read.

Rose and Angus annoy each other at first then become friends and then fall for each other. The problem is Rose is keeping a big secret and when he figures it out, he runs.

My favorite part of this story was how they didn't go straight to having intercourse. Rose needed to take things slow and Angus is happy to oblige her. This showed his respect for her and also made the sex more meaningful.

Highly recommend.

A Secret is a secret is a secret and if you keep it from the most important people for you, then it will be a reason for breaking up.

Rose has never get some positive feedback in her life, it was never easy and so she was hiding from the world, but now she found a house and Angus who helps her with the renovation.

Great and emotional story. So cute to read how Rose is expiring the world with all difficults in it.

have fun reading!

I was a little apprehensive of this book. Too many a plus size character always has a “come to their senses moment”, loses the weight, and then becomes lovable. That is not the case here. Rose embraces herself. She is who she is. She’s in search of a place to call home. And, she finds it in Galway. Enter Angus the contractor/therapist Rose hires to make the changes to her new home.

Spending day after day together Rose and Angus’ relationship starts out as just friends. Along the way it becomes more. So much more. But, Rose has a secret she is keeping from not only her new friends, but also Angus. This secret could change everything.

I throughly enjoyed this book. Moher has created characters I could care about. Both Rose and Angus are uncertain because of struggles in their past. The way Moher approaches certain situations is done with dignity and grace.
I was given the arc of Curves for Days by NetGalley and the publisher for a fair and honest review.

*I was given an ARC by NetGalley to read in exchange for an honest review.*

This book was sooooo good. Rose was such a sweet character. To see her grow throughout the book was probably one of my favorite things (aside from the fun spice). I loved that her relationship with Angus made her see herself in a different light (not that I am saying you need a man to do these things but sometimes that insight needs to come from an outside source). It was a fantastic story of a sassy, curvy woman and a grumpy, burly man and them slowly coming together. I thought this was so cute and would read from this author again.

3.5⭐️ rounded up to 4
Small town romance, plus size representation I’m there. I could not put this book down. I thoroughly enjoyed the main premise of the story with our fmc winning the lottery and trying to decide what to do with the money in a meaningful way. Enter her starting over in a new town and being able to become her true and authentic self for the first time in her life, unburdened by low income limitations.
The side characters are adorable and sweet. The small town vibes are immaculate. And the grumpy sunshine trope well done and adorable. I had many laugh out loud moments while reading.
Rosie our fmc does face a lot of fat phobia and has fat positive experiences throughout the book. I do feel the representation was well done, and I appreciate that Rosie doesn’t feel the need to change anything about herself, besides her underwear choices. Her size has never been something to hold her back, it’s more an annoyance and inconvenience in regards to shopping. Even the one character we despise for being blatantly fatphobic has a redeeming moment and we see the reciprocation of Rosie’s value beyond the size. I also love that Angus never even thinks of Rosie as fat, he’s always saying how attractive her curves are, how soft and inviting she is. There is no question of fat phobia in our MMC.
I wish that some of Rosie’s depression and SA had been dealt with in a healthier/more realistic manner, than just money reduces stress, now I’m happy. I would have liked to see Rosie deal with her issues in therapy, rather than our MMC showing Rosie her own value. The frequent mentions of SA in various forms could have been addressed more in depth. And the toxic masculinity expressed in the third act breakup, while addressed superficially, I would have liked to see a more thorough reckoning with it.
Thank you netgalley for the e arc. My opinions are my own.

Massive DNF. Couldn’t get with the copaganda or the body shaming. Very sad bc I wanted to love it. The cover is great though!

This book had so much potential. I really wanted to love it. The writing was a little spotty with segments ending with me wondering if I may have skipped a page. I would have loved for it to be a little more descriptive of the town or the people in it I couldn’t get the best grasp on all of the characters introduce. Which that being said, I would try the author again just get a better feel for the author. I would give this book 2.6 stars.

I loved this book. I love a book about someone who finds their way and their voice. Rose has come into some money, and she can discover new things now and start fresh in a new town.

Agnus is a staple in the town and is now renovating Rose's new home. While their relationship started shaky, they developed a great friendship and an attraction.

I truly enjoyed this romance and had a great time reading it. The ever-evolving dynamics between these two were awesome and kept me engaged.

Low stakes grumpy meets sunshine: when Alice, a self-described nobody and fat girl, literally wins the lottery, her life turns upside down and not in a good way-- complete strangers are hounding her for money. Alice panics, packs a bag, and gets on a bus to nowhere to become Rose, landing in fairy-tale Galway, NC, to start over.... with $80 million burning a hole in her conscience. She meets Angus, a grumpy, still-getting-over PTSD contractor and down-low therapist for fellow vets. In working on her brand new house, both Rose and Angus slowly come to realize that life doesn't have to be lonely and no one's keeping score.
Heart-felt treatment of being a fat woman and rape survival and PTSD and the set-up of "what would you do if you won the lottery?"

I so enjoyed this debut from Laura Moher and the cover is breathtaking!

Rose Barnes won the lottery. Then her life imploded. So she sets out to find a new life in a new place and ends up in western North Carolina where she vows not to tell a soul about the money. The impossibly lovely B&B, diner, used bookstore and market all convince Rose to stay and put down roots. She soon realizes the contractor she hired to renovate her house is the same grumpy giant who helped push her out of a snow bank her first night in town. Angus has spent his life keeping score, making sure he owes no one anything, until he falls ass over chaps in love with Rosie Barnes.

When I picked up the book, I absolutely flew through the first 60%. I loved watching Angus and Rose fall in love as Rosie finds her people and place. I appreciated all her anxieties around her body and intimacy and how Angus worshipped her from the beginning. From page one, we can all predict what the source of conflict for Rosie and Angus will be but I still wanted it to go away. I didn’t love how Angus responded and his inability or unwillingness to examine why he was reacting the way he was when he found out about the money. Overall I really enjoyed this and will look forward to more from this author!

Content warnings: lots of discussion of PTSD and experiences in the military; Angus counsels veterans and one of them dies of suicide during the book; Rosie is sexually assaulted as a teenager and the experience is described on page; there is blatant fat phobia described and experienced in detail in both past and present for Rosie

I voluntarily reviewed an early copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

A stunning debut from Moher that had me captivated from start to finish! I loved how fleshed out and fully realized both Rose and Angus were and I am a huge fan of dual POV because being in both their minds is so delicious once the angst hits! This book does have a 3rd act breakup which I don't mind, but just something to be aware of if that is not your cup of tea—but I was rooting for these two throughout because I JUST WANT THEM TO BE HAPPY.

I loved the Plus Size and mental health rep in this, it is very important to me that there is more diversity and attention drawn to these facets of life, since I feel they are underrepresented in media as a whole. Seeing perspectives like these help us all see the world a little deeper and have more empathy for each other.

The small-town setting was wonderfully grounded and I can't wait to be back for more in this universe! Moher is definitely an author I will be looking out for and I encourage you to do the same.

DNF at 53%. I hate to DNF books that have fat rep in them because we need more not less but I am struggling with reading any ebooks right now that I cannot continue to push myself reading this book when I am not liking it.

Pluses:
- The lottery winning aspect is fun and we all have those kind of what if we win and what we would do with the money.
- I liked the small town and side characters for the post part
- Rosie is starting to come into her own and am loving that part of it.

Downsides:
- Rosie is very insecure in her ability to pull a guy, any guy much less an "attractive" one because she has constantly learned through horrific fat shaming as a child and teen that she is not to be desired. Although, this is not abnormal for fat bodied people to experience, I find it extremely triggering as a fat woman to read this kind of rep throughout a book that is trying to show positive fat rep. Rosie feels that she is less than because of her body size and it is playing into the man feeding her that she is worthy trope and that is going to bug the hell out of me.

- The random fat shaming scene in the diner, I know this exists again, I have been in a fat body for a long time and I have been shamed for sure but to just take it and not push back against the woman drove me up a wall. Is Rosie, right that odds are the woman wouldn't care to know sure, but I am just tired of constantly seeing this be the go to with some fat rep.

- Angus is supposed to be a grump but you have to pull off grumpy vs asshole and here there is not a good pull off for it and as a result I find myself to be very put off by Angus.

-This book brings up a very interesting discussion about SA in the military and I was actually like yes! let's talk about this but it is very focused on women being SA'd in the military and how Angus does not feel that he is prepared as a counselor to be of help to them because he is a man vs his clinical training being helpful? I've seen this play out in therapy side for so long while working with SA survivors that their counselors constantly do not want to help them with SA trauma or bring up gender as the classification of why they would not be good instead of looking at it through the lens of giving the survivor power to decide. If they picked you as their counselor, they knew your gender that you present so why not bring it up more in a conversation to allow space and ensure for safety but also relationship counseling on realizing that it might be helping them to work with someone who is not harmful from the gender they were assaulted by. Also--- men have SUPER high rates of SA in the military close to 50 men are assaulted sexually a DAY in the military it is not just women.

Overall, for me it just comes down to the fat rep not working for me personally given how insecure Rosie is and how re-traumatizing that is for a fat person to read and be in that head space is really what made me put it down.

After winning the lottery and being hounded relentlessly for the money, Rose leaves her unfulfilling life in Indiana and hops in her car, driving without a destination in mind and hoping to find a new place to settle. A chance encounter with a grumpy but helpful guy on the highway leaves her in the fictional town of Galway, North Carolina, where she subsequently meets a few kind people and begins to set up a life for herself. Eventually she buys a home, and the grumpy but helpful guy ends up helping with much-needed renovations...romantic shenanigans ensue as Rose figures out what to do with her absurd amount of lottery money.

Y'all, this book is just lovely. It's hard for me to pass up a romance set in my home state of North Carolina, and I'm always thrilled when they end up being great! There are a lot of things to love about this book beyond its setting and touch of Southern charm. First and foremost, I love that the main character is a big, curvy woman and that the story doesn't shy away from discussing the issues she and so many other women face - assumptions about fitness levels, inability to find clothes that fit in stores, judgment of food choices, etc. The book does a great job of addressing those concerns without the answer simply being "and she lost weight/worked out more so things became better." It's amazing to see a curvy woman be loved and appreciated for her body without needing to do anything differently. Another great thing about this book is the romance - it's a grumpy x sunshine story that's simultaneously super sweet and yet full of sexual tension. The main characters have a lot of chemistry and reading their love story really feels like a big warm comfy hug.

There are a few things that prevent this from being a 5-star read. After the main characters get together, there's not a whole lot of tension in the plot. Everything is lovely and easy for them - don't get me wrong, it's nice to read that to a certain extent, but it makes for a less compelling narrative for a big chunk of the book. In part because of that, the big conflict that finally does happen feels a bit forced (without any spoilers, I don't find Angus's hold-ups convincing at all). Also, the book changes POV way too often for my liking. It feels as if the author wants every conversation and interaction to be viewed from both of the main characters' points of view, but that really isn't necessary for the story, and it actually causes a bit of whiplash for the reader.

All that being said, I loved reading this book, and I highly recommend it for anyone who is in need of a cozy romance. I look forward to more from this author!

I think this will probably be really big on Booktok, I, however, have mixed feelings about it. I thought the premise was really cute (small-town, home renovation/ handyman thing, even the lottery win was pretty different than a lot of other books I've read with a similar trope). Unfortunately, I found both characters to be absolutely annoying and immature. I both did and didn't understand why Rose didn't tell Angus about her money, and then absolutely didn't understand why Angus was all "I just don't know you anymore" when he found out the truth -- as if Rose wasn't supporting everyone he loved and also him.

Also, this book needed content warnings. I did not see any in my copy of this. This one deals with very serious subject matter, and it was very jarring to see these things talked about so cavalierly without care.

I absolutely adored this book. A sweet, small town romance with great body positivity, which is not something you get often! While this book does delve into some more serious topics (PTSD, bullying, suicide, etc.), it's still able to remain fairly lighthearted throughout the majority of the book. I appreciate a book that can add some depth to a romance and I think this book did that really well. Would definitely recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley and SourceBooks Casablanca for the eARC of this book!

I didn't have any expectations when I started this book as an arc read. It had a cute cartoon cover and it had a plus-sized female main characters. Two things that I loved in a rom com books. And the story inside was even better than I could have hoped! I really dislike when authors make the FMC's weight her whole personality and this wasn't like that at all. She was plus-sized and than was it. Other than her mentioning a feel times about how she felt uncomfortable in some chairs etc, and a snotty restaurant patron, her weight was barely discussed, she just was plus-sized and that was it.

I love the home renovations aspect of the book, because I love a good TLC home reno show, and this gave me that with a hot and burly contractor! The character interactions were amazing, and even the side characters were great, I loved July, she needs her own book!!!

There was a small amount of spice, and there was also discussion about a previous SA, and the aftermath from that, so if that I a trigger for you please respect yourself.

4 stars
1.5 spice

Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for an advanced ebook edition of this book in exchange for an honest review.

charming heroine and gruff hero is my favorite description

thank you to netgalley and to the publisher for this review copy.

I didn’t like this one. Didn’t like the romance. Didn’t care for the characters. I would not suggest.

I don't even know where to start....This book ignited all the feels. I was cracking up at Rosie's smart responses one minute and literally sobbing at another scene a second later. The characters in this story embedded themselves into my heart without warning. I was hooked. Literally sat for 5 hrs reading until I was finished because I just couldn't put it down. I love the alternating viewpoints because I feel like that brought more life to both Rosie and Angus. This story had some spice, which I love but also real life struggles that hit just a little to close to home. This was a phenomenal read and I would 100% recommend!! Get ready for an emotional rollercoaster ride but in the best way possible!!

I really love this book, I loved the plus size representation. This was a sweet, and perfect Summer read, exactly what I needed to get me out of this tremendous slump!